Moving to Elizabethtown area (Lancaster, Harrisburg: sales, real estate, apartments)

[Pennyann]

Does anyone have information to share about Elizabethtown?
We are considerating a move to this area. Is there a local hospital and
is the area safe. How about shopping, dining, recreation? Any
information would be helpful. Would prefer new home, but really
would like property to build own house. If buying into a neighborhood
presently under construction, can you choose your own home plans?
Can anyone tell me about new housing going up and where it is
located. Thanks so much.

[kellyjk]

Wow, where do I start? "E-town," as the locals call it, is a great place. It's got history and that real "small town" feel (it's got a real Main Street and small town square), but it's also close to a lot of larger city amenities, as it's only about 20 minutes from Hershey (home of Hershey Chocolate), Harrisburg (PA's state capital), and Lancaster (one of my favorite towns on earth). There are fantastic hospitals and health facilities in both Hershey (Hershey Medical Center) and Lancaster (Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster Women and Babies Hospital, and Lancaster Regional Medical Center), so you're definitely smart to choose E-town if a wide variety of high-quality local healthcare options is important to you.

The area is definitely very safe, though E-town is a college town (Elizabethtown College is private, very small and selective), so I imagine that can cause some issues with loud parties every now and again. I would NEVER be worried for my personal safety in this town or larger area, though.

As far as shopping, dining, and recreation are concerned, you couldn't be in a better area. PA doesn't charge sales tax on clothing and most food (and just 6% on other things), so the Lancaster/Dauphin County area is famous for its outlet shopping. Additionally, there is a large mall in Lancaster (Park City), if that's more your thing...there's also a HUGE mall at King-of-Prussia, which is close to Philly (only about an hour to an hour-and-a-half's drive). Lancaster is also famous for its restaurants, though E-town proper has quite a few great places on its own. Try T.J. Rockwells for fries and steaks and burgers, but get there early! They have an awesome deck in the summer time, but the wait to eat at this place can be over an hour. I have also often driven to E-town to go to Rita's, which is a chain of Italian Ice/Gelato stands open in the summertime (there's one on Main Street). In my opinion, E-town also has one of the best movie theatres (the cutely named Movi-E-Town) in the area. Another great fun feature of E-town is the annual Fair in August...it's hilarious as well as a good place to get to know your neighbors. Of course, you're only 20 minutes from HersheyPark, too, which has got lots of roller coasters and other fun rides. Hershey also draws a lot of big-name music acts, so if you like concerts, you can often see your favorite artists stop on tour there.

You asked about housing, too, and while I'm not an expert, as I've only lived with my parents and in apartments at this point in my life, I can tell you that the area around E-town is rapidly expanding. If you're going to build, there is a lot of land available (probably mostly to the south and east of the town toward Manheim and Mount Joy), and I know that you're not really limited on what kind of plan you want. There aren't a lot of overly planned out developments in this area of PA...(there are a lot of developments, don't get me wrong, but it's more that you buy a lot and "build to suit" than choose from a short list of pre-set models). I would think of buying a historic home in this area, though, too, as there are a lot of nice, renovated ones. In fact, that's pretty much your only option if you want to live "in town".

In any case, good luck! I hope some of this info was helpful. I can answer more questions, if you'd like!

[Anders Pettersson]

I can only agree to kellyjk's post. I love that area too even if i have never been in E-town. My wife is working in Hershey Medical Center and we are planning to move to the Hershey area in about 2 years. We have surfed Real Estates sites and we even consider E-town.

[Bengrey]

Originally Posted by Pennyann

Does anyone have information to share about Elizabethtown?
We are considerating a move to this area. Is there a local hospital and
is the area safe. How about shopping, dining, recreation? Any
information would be helpful. Would prefer new home, but really
would like property to build own house. If buying into a neighborhood
presently under construction, can you choose your own home plans?
Can anyone tell me about new housing going up and where it is
located. Thanks so much.

It's got history and that real "small town" feel (it's got a real Main Street and small town square), but it's also close to a lot of larger city amenities, as it's only about 20 minutes from Hershey (home of Hershey Chocolate), Harrisburg (PA's state capital), and Lancaster (one of my favorite towns on earth). There are fantastic hospitals and health facilities in both Hershey (Hershey Medical Center) and Lancaster (Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster Women and Babies Hospital, and Lancaster Regional Medical Center), so you're definitely smart to choose E-town if a wide variety of high-quality local healthcare options is important to you.

All this is true, but also keep in mind that Lancaster County has been the most rapidly developing community in the state in terms of housing etc. New neighborhoods spring up, including in E-town, to the point that new map books have a hard time staying current. The small town atmosphere of E-town can easily be overshadowed by congested traffic is. Imagine small town USA with bumper to bumper traffic most of the daylight hours.

The area is relatively safe. I would not feel hesitant to walk down the main street in E-town boro late at night. Maybe I should be, but from my perspective, if my car broke down in town in the middle of the night, I would not be worried about being bothered.

Rockwells is a Bar/Resturant that gets really packed and noisy, if that is what you want in dining experience. The food is great and they definitely don't skimp on the portions.

Hershey medical center is 20-25 minutes from the center of E-town. Lancaster General and the Lancaster City Hospitals are about 30 minutes away. LGH is tops for heart care, I think they got a place in the top 100 in the nation for heart health care.

The other thing to consider about this region is taxes. I don't know where you coming from, but the taxes on your homes and property around here are going up. There is a movement in the state capital to find alternate sources of revenue for school taxes to ease the burden on home and property owners but things are going slow on that. If you get a 150,000 home, your annual taxes on it might be easily over $2,000 per year depending what school district you live in. Because everyone wants to move to this area, the school district (who has the authority to tax) decides that they need bigger buildings, and raise taxes on the homes to raise the revenue.

[enviroman]

Check out any of my other Lancaster County posts to get some of the "cons" of the area. It's very conservative and religious...Elizabethtown may be less conservative due to the College, but, on a whole, the entire county is conservative.

[Poor Royal]

Don't forget TMI

[mjk1093]

Is E-Town in the evacuation zone?

Anyway, I haven't found it to be any less conservative because of the college. Remember, it was E-Town High School that banned its marching band from playing "YMCA" because the Village People were gay...

[enviroman]

Originally Posted by mjk1093

Is E-Town in the evacuation zone?

Anyway, I haven't found it to be any less conservative because of the college. Remember, it was E-Town High School that banned its marching band from playing "YMCA" because the Village People were gay...

Awesome.

I can't say I miss Lancaster County.

[EAHSBandGeek07]

Um my opinion may seem a little on the biased side seeing as to the fact that i have lived in E-town ALL of my life. I'm more responding to what the others have said then anything else. About the traffic issue, well "Imagine small town USA with bumper to bumper traffic most of the daylight hours." Doesn't explain it at all. Sometimes it does get a little hectic during rush hour but thats mostly it. I mean i live about 30 yard, tops, away from Market St. which is the main street in our town, And about five minutes away from the square (by foot) and i've never had any real dificault with traffic. I can usualy get from on side of town to the other in 15 minute (20 if it's rush hour). So that's not to bad.

And the TMI issue, isn't realy an issue. I don't even think we are in the evacuation area. Like i said before i have lived here all my life and the only time there was a problem was after 9/11 when the security tightened. That was only because there were always jets flying over head about every hour. I was even allowed on the island before and it was really cool standing in one of the cooling towers.

And while E-town is (however unfortunetly) on the conservative and religus side, i wouldn't say it's overly so. I myself and quite a few of my freands and class mate are libral, And so are many of our teachers. And the reason it's on the religus side is because it is primarily a christian community so theres never realy been a reason not to be openly religus. But most of the people aren't religus in a pushy way, they are just very open about it. In fact one of the most respected and liked teachers at the highschool is,well, Muslim, and libral, And he doesn't have any problems. And with the whole Y.M.C.A. thing. I'm not sure about that. It's most likely left up to the band director and the school board. We have withen the last few years gotten several new board members and a new B.D. And this year we (the band) are playing house of the rising sun for on field warm up(and if you have ever heard thet song you'd know why i'm mentaning this.) And last year for the May Day talent show our M.C.s dressed up as the vilage people (with the schools consent).

Now on to some fun stuff. Near the one end of town is Clearview bowling ally. Then in the other direction half way betwen E-town and Middle town there's Dock's which is a roller rink. And we have Movi E-town. Theres also a rather large park near the center of town that has a basket ball court, places to have picnics, and the "fun fort" which is mostly for little kids. For resturants, let's see. There's T.J.Rockwells which has amazing food, but, depending on the time of day and if theres school when you visit, you might be waiting for a while to get a seat. There's also the E-town Dinner. It has good food and service and the prices aren't outragus, and the portions aren't skimpy either. We also have all the basics like McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and we even have a Twin Kiss.

So that's pretty much all i have to say for E-town except we are the home base of M&M Mars. You know the makers of that candy coverd chocolate snake that melts in your mouth not your hand. Yeah that's us. Well later.

[ithinkitstru]

I love E-town and it is the perfect place for anyone, as long as they keep it real. Twin Kiss is a local business,,,, greasy but amazing! Just so you know, since E-town is right near Hershey and M&M Mars, when it is going to rain, you smell chocolate. Anyways, E-town is small but its in a great location~~ movie theater, T.J. Rockwell's (local restaraunt~~ always crowded but the best food in town) hope you move here!!!